I try to stay as cynical and well-informed as possible, so when I learn that something I thought was relatively obvious is not true at all, I am surprised. I was thus quite surprised to see a bit of reporting/analysis so out of line with the junta's media cartel's worldview that it was banished to the NYT op-eds.
Robert A. Pape did an actual study of suicide bombings and found that they are a tactic not of religious fundamentalists, but of nationalist liberation movements.
Over the past two years, I have compiled a database of every suicide bombing and attack around the globe from 1980 through 2003 - 315 in all. ... The data show that there is far less of a connection between suicide terrorism and religious fundamentalism than most people think.
More detailed results follow:
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